The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948 Page: 149
406 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Algernon P. Thompson
Dr. Theodore Leger, in the newspaper business. They hitched
their enterprise to Vice-President Lamar's political aspirations
and solicited Lamar to contribute articles to their journal.43
Lamar viewed with favor the project and lent them a printing
press he owned.44 The two entrepreneurs moved the press from
Velasco to Brazoria and, in February, 1838, began publishing the
People.'" Two of the earlier issues of the paper carried a biog-
raphy of Moses Austin from Lamar's pen, and the publishers
were so well satisfied with it that they proposed that Lamar
"undertake the entire charge of" their "biographical depart-
ment."40 The enterprise soon came to an end by Lamar's selling
the printing press,'47 but that the publishers held no ill feeling
toward Lamar was evident from their booming him, in their
last issues, as a candidate for the presidency.48
After his removal to Houston, Thompson tried his hand at
poetry. In the winter of 1838-1839 appeared three poems of his,
uneven in meter and commonplace in thought but not entirely
devoid of merit.
TO MY PEN
I'm melancholy now, and why?
Ahl this I may not tell;
A tear-drop glistens in my eye,
And there, O, let it dwell.
The laughing world brings nought to me,
To cheer my lonely heart;
I love not its society.
It nothing can impart,
I turn me from its fantasy,
And I am happy then,
And find companionship with thee,
My old, my faithful Pen.49
43Leger to Lamar, December 6, 18g7, in Lamar Papers, I, 590-591.
44Liger and Thompson to Lamar, January 25, 1838, ibid., II, 29.
45No copy of this newspaper is known to exist. W. P. A., Texas Newspapers,
1813-1939, a Union List of Newspaper Files Available in Ofices of Publishers,
Libraries, and a Number of Private Collections (Houston, 1941), 29.
46Leger and Thompson to Lamar, February 28, 1838, in Lamar Papers, II, 38-39.
47James S. Jones to Lamar, May 2, 1838, ibid., 154; L6ger and Thompson to
Lamar, May 2, 1838, ibid., 154-155; Robert Eden Handy to Lamar, May 16, 1838,
ibid., 158.
4SL6ger and Thompson to Lamar, June 12, 1838, ibid., 162-163.
4oTelegraph and Texas Register, November 24, 1838.149
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948, periodical, 1948; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101119/m1/191/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.